Device for handling railroad-rails



Patented Aug. 23, I898. E. DAY.

DEVICE FOR HANDLING RAILROAD RAILS.

(Apphcatlon filed Apr 4, 1898) TNvENTuF m4 410 (N0 Mode'.)

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DEVICE FOR HANDLING RAILROAD-RAILS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 609,417, dated August 23, 1898.

Application filed April 4, 1898. Serial No. 676,288- (No model.)

To 66 whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERASTUS DAY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lakewood, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Handling Railroad Rails; and I do declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to devices for handling railroad-rails; and the object of the invention is to provide means which will save hand-labor and very greatly facilitate the loading and unloading of railroad-rails, especially to and from the holds of vessels, as well .as to and from railroad-cars and places of storage, all as hereinafter fully'described,and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a perspective of my improved handling device as shown in operation and lifting a num ber of rails. Fig. 2 is a perspective, partly in section, of the lifting box or cap, in which the lower ends of the rails are placed substantially as seen in Fig. l for raising and lowering the same and showing sections of the lifting-chains at the ends thereof. Fig. 3 is a perspective of a form of stirrup or yoke by which the rails are engaged toward their upper ends and which is designed to be coupled with lifting chains or cables, as shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4: is an enlarged elevation of the hooks with which the lifting chains or cables are connected. 1 I

It is well known to'those who are familiar with the handling of railroad-rails, and espe cially with the storing of the same in holds of vessels for transportation, that heretofore it has been a laborious, slow, and tedious work, for the reason that no really successful appliances are in use, at least so far as I am aware, whereby the rails can be handled in bulk or in numbers and the operation of handling, therefore, very greatly facilitated and the labor thereof very materially reduced.

The present invention is designed to afford means which will enable a half a dozen, fewer or more, of rails to be handled with at least as much speed as a single rail has hitherto been handled and with very much less expenditure of hand-labor, the work being done by means of power suitably applied through my novel lifting device to transfer the rails bodily from one place to another-and involving no hand-labor except such as may be required to pack or carefully place the rails in respect to each other as they are being stored away and possibly to engage the lifting mechanism thereto preparatory to their transfer. This labor, however, is slight, especially as compared with the transfer of the rail entirely by hand; and the invention therefore consists in the mechanism for bodily handling rails in quantity at a time, substantially as shown and described and particularly as pointed out in'the claims.

In the figures abovereferred to, A represents a group of railroad-rails suspended and supported as occurs during transfer by my invention, and, as already indicated, as many as a dozen, more or fewer, of these may be grouped together and transferred in a lot, according to size and strength of the lifting device, which may be made larger or smaller, as may he wanted.

13 represents *a box-shaped carrier which has its bottom and sides closed and is open at its top, the walls about around its sides and ends serving to confine the ends of the rails, while the bottom supports the weight of the rail, and the said box is designed to be made abundantly strong to carry all the load it is capable of receiving. It may be adapted to a single row of rails or to two or more rows or layers of rai1s,1one on top of the other, and is essentially the carrying or lifting member of the device, and practically all the weight of the rails comes upon it, and the ends are so confined therein that there is no danger of their spreading or working out.

0 are a set of suspensory chains or cables which are connected with the ends of the box or carrier and are of suitable length-say two-thirds that of the length of the rail or thereabout.

D is a stirrup having, in thisinstance, a hinged side at for convenience of entering the stirrup from one side under the group of rails, and it also is provided with a set of suspensory or lifting chains 01, which are of a length to also engage the lifting-hook E upon the lower extremity of the hoist chain or cable F. The chains d are relatively short, and the stirrup D is designed to embrace the rails above their middle part and toward their upper ends, so that the greater weight will be below this engagement and the rails will not be overbalanced on the stirrup. In fact, the length of stirrup and chains d should be only such as to give the rails about the inclination shown when suspended, thus making their transfer a perfectly safe one and bringing the rails into a position which especially enables them to be delivered through the hatches or hatchways of a boat or vessel. In the operation of thus delivering the rails and having them in a nearly vertical position the box or carrier B, upon which they rest, naturally strikes the floor of the Vessel first, and there being rollers or casters 1) on the bottom thereof and the rails being inclined about as shown the weight of the rails alone as they are thus held causes the carrier to travel on its rollers easily over the floor as it may be directed, while the rails are being lowered through the hatch into the vessel. The hatches always are large enough to receive rails at this inclination and to lower them bodily therethrough into the hold of the vessel to be stored away, so that no inconvenience is experienced on this account. The carrier B can be run over a bed of rails and serve to convey the load the same as it would upon the floor. When the rails have been delivered into the hold of the vessel, the hoistchain F, upon the lower end of which are fixed the hooks E, is designed to be lowered as much as may be needed to convey the rails to the point where they are wanted, and then the carrier B and stirrup D are removed and are ready to go back for another load.

If it were not for the convenience of placing the stirrup D under the rails, both sides thereof might be rigid; neither is the exact form of the stirrup material, and any other suitable form may be used. Indeed,a continuous chain might be used in lieu of the stirrup D and its supports d; but the tendency of a chain alone would be to turn the rails out of their close position at this point and to disturb their ends in carrier B. Hence a chain alone is not desirable. Suspensory chains and a hoist-chain are-here shown and are preferred; but as other suitable cables could be used instead I use the word chain herein as generic and as covering cables, ropes, and the like.

In Fig. 1, G represents the hatch of a vessel, and to facilitate the delivery of the rails, as well as protect the hatch, I employ a roller I-I, supported at its ends on brackets h, engaged over the edge of the hatch and bringing the roller just within the said edge, so that the rails will ride thereon. Then as the load is sent forward it rides on both the roller II and the casters Z) or their equivalent in a roller resembling the roller II.

A single suspensory chain for the carrier might be used in connection with a bail or the like at the bottom, and instead of a hook E the hoist-chain might have rings and hooks on the chain, or chains 0 and d, respectively, would serve the same purpose.

The roller G may be removed from the hatch or placed thereon at any desired place at pleasure.

A single long roller may be substituted for the casters 1), and any suitable form of carrier B may be used.

If preferred, a box like B or its equivalent might be placed over the upper ends of the rails instead of using the yoke D and the suspensory chains cl be connected therewith. Of course the chains 0 and d may be in one piece, as here shown, or separate chains.

What I claim is 1. A lifting'device for metallic rails consisting of the box-shaped member to place over the ends of a group of rails to lift the same, a member to support the opposite ends of said rails, chains connected with each of said rail-engaging members and a hoist connecting said chains to lift the group of rails bodily, substantially as described.

2. The carrier for engaging the rails, the stirrup having a hinged side to engage the rails bodily, and the suspensory chains, substantially as described.

3. The carrier for engaging the rails and the stirrup to support the rails bodily, the

suspensory chains for each of said parts, the hoist-chain and hooks connecting said hoist and suspensory chains, substantially as described.

4. A device for handling metallic rails comprising a member to receive and confine the corresponding ends of a group of rails, means to hold together and carry the opposite ends of said rails, and flexible connections uniting said rail-carrying parts, substantially as described.

5. The rail-carrier having a closed bottom and walled sides, and suspensory cables connected with said carrier, in combination with a member to engage the rails at the opposite ends from said carrier and flexible connections therefrom to said suspensory cables, substantially as described.

6. The carrier for railroad-rails consisting of a receptacle having a closed bottom and walled sides and a roller 011 its bottom on which it travels, in combination with suspensory cables connected therewith, substantially as described.

Witness my hand to the foregoing specification this 21st day of March, 1898.

ERASTUS DAY.

WVitnesses:

H. E. MUDRA, R. B. MOSER. 

